Brown, a volunteer with the Fremont Township Fire Department in Isabella County, ended up dealing with the wrong kind of fire at Five Alarm Smokehouse Wednesday afternoon when the smoker went up in flames.

Assistant Fremont Township Fire Chief Micheal Main firefighters were called to the business at 6438 S. Winn Road in Fremont Township at about noon.

Brown checked the smoker shortly after opening the business Wednesday, finding that it was working properly, Main said.

Advertisement

A short time later, the smoker was fully engulfed, Main said.

After trying to douse the flames with a fire extinguisher, Brown called for help, Main said.

Fire had spread to the ceiling rafters, and the smoker was completely destroyed, Main said.

Cause of the fire is not yet known, according to Main.

Specializing in smoked meats, Five Alarm Smokehouse and Custom Butcher Shop will be back as soon as possible, Brown said.

Brown’s insurance agent, Kurt Feight of the Mt. Pleasant Agency, arrived as firefighters were finishing their work at the business, which is owned by Five Alarm Investments, LLC, according to Isabella County tax records.

“We’ll be back, and up and going as soon as we can,” Brown said, adding that structural and smoke damage means he has to hire a restoration company and that his entire inventory was ruined in the fire.

Firefighters from Mt. Pleasant, Deerfield Township, Shepherd and Millbrook-Rolland, as well as Mobile Medical Response and the Isabella County Sheriff’s Department, assisted.

(Susan Field can be reached at 989-779-6075, sfield@michigannewspapers.com or follow her on Facebook at facebook.com/#!/susan.k.field.)